Dell gives XPS 13 a graphics upgrade and new gold option

Dell's XPS 13 just got even better

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A year after announcing what is arguably the best, and certainly one of the best, Windows notebooks on the market, Dell is still making tweaks to the wildly popular XPS 13. Dell's aluminum-clad XPS 13 with its Infinity Display will be getting a graphics bump.

Dell will offer a variant of the XPS 13 with Intel Iris graphics, which Dell claims will deliver a 40% boost in graphics performance over the non-Iris counterpart.

Innovations from Dell's premium XPS 13 are trickling to business-class notebooks. For example, Dell announced a premium 30-inch OLED monitor with a 0.1ms refresh rate and miniscule InfinityEdge bezels, a feature borrowed from the XPS 13.

Dell is also bringing this slender bezel innovation to this year's Latitude 13 7000 Series refresh, a business-class notebook that takes its inspiration from the consumer-centric XPS 13.

The XPS 13 is gold for Dell

Not only is the XPS 13 a popular notebook for Dell, but it will soon arrive in yet another color option. If silver aluminum livery isn't posh enough for your tastes, you'll be able to pick up the XPS 13 in gold.

According to The Verge, the gold tone hue will only be applied to the exterior of the notebook, meaning that the keyboard deck, palm rest and trackpad will maintain their black aesthetics. The publication noted that the gold is subtle and not "gaudy".

For some, Dell may not have gone far enough with its Midas touch, by not coating the entire notebook in gold. For comparison, the MacBook's gold finish is applied to the laptop's lid, bottom, keyboard, trackpad and palm rest. Only the individual keys of the keyboard are black once you open up Apple's slim notebook.

If gold is your thing, you'll have to pony up for the premium configuration. You'll also get an Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, 256GB of storage and a QHD+ for the $1,699 asking price.

In addition to the XPS 13, Dell's refreshed XPS 15 is also arriving in early February.